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Who really said it

Nothing is more common than the wish to be remarkable

Not Shakespeare — Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 1809–1894 · American physician, poet & essayist
Disputed Free to reuse

The idea is genuinely Holmes’s, but the popular wording is a paraphrase. In The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) he actually wrote, “Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.” The smoother “Nothing is more common than the wish to be remarkable” is a later rewording, and the frequent credit to William Shakespeare ↗ has no basis in his works.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Nothing is more common than the wish to be remarkable” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). Original wording: “Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.”

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to William Shakespeare. Use the credit shown above instead.

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In context

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Provenance

The real source

True author
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894)
Work
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
First published
1858 (serialized in The Atlantic Monthly, 1857–58)
Original wording
“Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.”

You long to “leap at a single bound into celebrity.” Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable. Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else,—very rarely to those who say to themselves, “Go to, now, let us be a celebrated individual!” The struggle for fame, as such, commonly ends in notoriety.

From a letter Holmes reproduces in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, advising a young writer against chasing celebrity.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (full text, Project Gutenberg)

How we traced it

Public domain

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table was first published in book form in 1858 (serialized in The Atlantic Monthly in 1857–58), so both the original line and the whole work are in the public domain in the United States.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

How it got pinned on Shakespeare

This is a double error: the wrong author and the wrong words. The thought belongs to Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., but the wording most people quote is a paraphrase, and the name attached to it is usually Shakespeare’s.

William Shakespeare Not in any play, poem, or sonnet

The line is routinely credited to Shakespeare across quote sites — for example Goodreads ↗ — yet it appears in none of his works and has no early-modern source. It is a classic magnet-name misattribution.

“Nothing is more common than the wish to be remarkable” Paraphrase

Holmes actually wrote “Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable” in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table ↗. The circulating forms — “more common than the wish” and “so common as the wish” — both smooth away his original “common-place.”

The real author is Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., who wrote “Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable” in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table ↗ (1858) — not Shakespeare, and not in the smoothed wording usually quoted.

Context

What Holmes actually meant

Holmes puts the line in a mock letter of advice to an ambitious young writer who longs to “leap at a single bound into celebrity.” His point is deflationary: wanting to be remarkable is the most ordinary thing in the world — it is the mark of the crowd, not the exception.

He goes on to argue that real fame “usually comes to those who are thinking about something else,” while the naked struggle for fame “commonly ends in notoriety.” The irony is sharp: the very wish that feels distinguishing is what makes one common-place.

“Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else.”

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Humility Success

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (full text)gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg edition containing the verbatim line, “Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.”
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Tableen.wikisource.org

Wikisource transcription of Holmes’s 1858 work for cross-checking the passage.
‘Nothing is so commonplace as to wish to be remarkable’shakespearegeek.com

Shakespeare-authority blog debunking the Shakespeare credit and pointing to Holmes.
Quote filed under William Shakespearegoodreads.com

Example of the widespread but unsupported Shakespeare attribution.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.en.wikipedia.org

Biography of the true author — physician, poet, and one of the ‘Fireside Poets.’
Paraphrased wording credited to Holmesquotefancy.com

Shows the smoothed ‘more common than the wish’ variant attached to Holmes.

The true author

About Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

1809–1894 · American physician, poet & essayist · The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) was a Boston physician, Harvard anatomy professor, and one of the “Fireside Poets.” He is remembered for the witty, discursive essays collected as The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) and for coining the term “Boston Brahmin.” He was the father of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1858). Originally serialized in The Atlantic Monthly, 1857–58.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Nothing is more common than the wish to be remarkable’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/nothing-is-more-common-than-the-wish-to-be-remarkable/

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